Has Stalin Moved To The MSM?

Have you ever read something about yourself in the newspaper and thought: “Man, they got it wrong”?

Yesterday I summed up in English and posted a German-language piece put out directly by RIA Novosti (see post from yesterday) http://de.rian.ru/science/20100423/126040500.html. Then a few hours later WUWT posted an English version of the same story released by the UPI. The two versions could hardly be different. It’s one thing to get some things wrong, but it’s quite another to write a whole new story.

1. The UPI opens with:

A Russian scientist says the Arctic may be getting colder, not warmer, which…

But the German version, direct from RIA Novosti, says:

Not warming, but coolingwill impact theEarth’s climate over the next few years….

2. The UPI wrote:

An Arctic cold snap that began in 1998…

But the German version says:

The climate has been cooling since 1998…

When translating, you’ll rarely get it 100% right. Translators try to get as close as possible. But here there really is no excuse for screwing up cooling will impact theEarth’s climate and writing instead: Arctic may be getting colder. In no. 2 they translate “climate“ to “Arctic“!

The UPI then leaves out (censors?) a large portion of the text as well. For an issue on which the future of humanity hinges, one that is as grave as WWII, the UPI translation sure was awfully careless. It gets a failing grade. Readers – check your sources!